surge VS JuceOPLVSTi

Good stuff!

I started getting in to this at the start of the year. Already had an old, dusty MicroKORG and MIDI interface to use it as a controller, but recently splashed out on a bigger controller as the Korg's tiny keys were hurting me - plus, I wanted something bigger to get better at piano!

A couple of free soft synths I'd recommend are Surge XT, and Vital.

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/

https://vital.audio/

https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/ and https://asb2m10.github.io/dexed/ should work like a charm.

To get the equivalent of a symphonic orchestra in your computer, the solution is basically money; you buy the instruments you need. In the case of synthesizers, things are much cheaper - if you put in the effort yourself. https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/ is excellent and could even be used if you wanted to make a more retro-style soundtrack.

Instead of Synth1, try https://surge-synthesizer.github.io/ . It's pretty much better in every aspect except for the UI which is going to look a lot more daunting to you ;)

In general, this should only happen when a Program Change message is sent.

Check this out https://github.com/bsutherland/JuceOPLVSTi

A workaround is to not use OpenMPT's built-in OPL samples, but instead, an OPL VST instrument plugin like JuceOPLVSTi, and make your OPL instrument use this plugin instead of the OPL samples. Then you can either apply the reverb plugin to the channel you want, or just route the output of the OPL plugin to the reverb plugin.

JuceOPL — a clean FM/additive synthesizer.

I don't think the Volca FM would be a good choice for that. For a start, it can only play one instrument at a time (no drums/bass/chords playing alongside the melody). The sequencer is only 1 track and 16 steps. If you want to spend some of your time instead of money, you could try getting more acquainted with Ableton of FL Studio and use a free VST like JuceOPLVSTi.

I ended up using https://bsutherland.github.io/JuceOPLVSTi/ since it made composition way easier than messing around with tracker software. I haven't really looked into extracting the patches from the game, but i'm sure it's possible - it did have a jukebox mode after all.